1L - First Year Lesson Topics

Designed to help bridge the gap between law school and law practice, this tutorial introduces students to commonly-used current awareness tools and alerting services. The lesson covers sources and strategies for finding topical newsletter services, blogs, email discussion lists, and scholarship repositories and instructs on how to use subscription alert services to keep up with the latest developments in a particular area of law.

The definition and location of customary international law is a difficult research task. This lesson begins by defining customary international law and placing customary international law into context through historical examples. Two research strategies for locating custom will be introduced. The first strategy is to locate pre-defined custom using a source that discusses state practice that has risen to the level of custom. The second and more complex strategy involves searching directly for evidence of customary international law.

This lesson covers the basic and specific measures of damages recoverable for tortious injuries to the interest in use and enjoyment of personal property. Students will be acquainted with conceptual and pragmatic problems of valuing the interest in use and enjoyment of personal property.

This lesson deals with basic and specific measures of damages recoverable in torts for harms to the interest in maintaining the physical integrity of personal property. Invasions of this interest are distinct from invasions of the interest in exclusive possession and the interest in use and enjoyment, and the law of damages reflects the differences. In order to deal effectively with the differences, separate lessons treat the interests in possession and use and enjoyment. The substance of causes of action available in torts for recovering damages is not treated here.

This lesson covers basic and specific measures of damages recoverable for tortious invasions of the interest in exclusive possession of personal property.

The student will be presented with concrete situations in which to consider application of rules and concepts of the law of damages. Analytically, invasions of the interest are separated into permanent deprivations and temporary deprivations and the different rules applicable to the two different contexts are explored.

This lesson deals with basic principles and measures of damages recoverable for harms to real property. The analysis to which students will be acquainted examines the harms in the context of three categories of interests to be protected by the law of damages. Those categories, which are separately treated in the lesson, are exclusive possession, physical integrity and use and enjoyment.

This lesson covers the common law rules and various statutory approaches governing recovery of damages for injuries resulting in death. Questions and problems in the lesson consider the circumstances under which and the extent to which damages are available to protect the interests of persons who die as a result of tortious injuries and the interests of the survivors of those persons.

This lesson covers the general principles and basic measures governing the remedy of damages for personal injuries. It explores issues and problems that confront a person seeking the damages remedy to address tortiously-inflicted physical harm.

This series of exercises is designed to help the user recognize whether an issue involves federal or state legal issues, and to select legal research sources appropriate to the jurisdiction and the applicable law. This exercise assumes that the user has a basic knowledge of legal research sources.

This lesson covers the subject of defense of others. In many respects an actor's right to defend another parallels his or her right to defend himself or herself. However, there are some specific exceptions and nuances that must be understood. It is the purpose of this lesson to cover those specifics and nuances in the context of some classic scenarios.

Overview of defenses to the formation of a contract.